


Deafening Silence

by lohn_jaurens



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Doctor John, F/M, M/M, idk what else to tag, it ends cute i swear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-25
Updated: 2016-06-25
Packaged: 2018-07-18 02:36:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7296106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lohn_jaurens/pseuds/lohn_jaurens
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based off the prompt "Your apartment is next to mine and i can hear you and your partner dancing and singing and the bed moving and you two laughing and talking in hushed tones and it won’t let me sleep so i bitch about it to you 24/7 and one day it stops and one day turns to one week and then months and i haven’t seen you smile in forever please let me in, i’ve been knocking for ten minutes"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deafening Silence

If there was one thing John hated, it was his noisy neighbor. Maybe hate was a strong word, he didn’t exactly hate the man, and he was actually rather enjoyable. He always made small talk with John, flashing him a bright, genuine smile, and asking him about his day. It wasn’t the man himself that John hates; it was the noise he always seemed to be making.

When the man, he learned his name was Alexander, was by himself, which was rarely, he wasn’t a bad neighbor. It was when his girlfriend was around that John became painstakingly aware of how thin the walls were. They were always being much louder than necessary, and made it nearly impossible for John to get any sleep.

John had just finished med school, and was interning at the local hospital. He always got stuck with the shittiest hours, working the night shift was a common occurrence for him. This means that John would crawl into bed around 7 am, which also happened to be the time Alexander and his girlfriend Eliza would be waking up. As far as he could tell, Eliza didn’t live there, but she was always at his apartment. They would wake up and make coffee (John could smell it, Alex must make it extremely strong), and would laugh so loud John couldn’t sleep until they left around 8 or 9.

He learned that Eliza had a lovely singing voice, because more often than not, he woke up to her singing after work at about 4pm. He didn’t know what she did, but has heard them talking about “the children” so he assumes she must be a teacher or something. Alexander would usually be home not long after and that’s normally the time they’d start fucking, and that’s how John learned that their bedrooms shared a wall.

If there was one thing constant in Johns life, it was his happy, loud, neighbors. They had the kind of relationship John had always wanted, and knew he would probably never get. They were always laughing and saying how much they loved each other, and when John wasn’t annoyed at how little sleep he got, he was jealous.

One day, when John got off of work, he crawled into bed as the sun starting rising. He heard Alexanders alarm go off, but didn’t hear anything else. John fell asleep quickly, thankful for the silence for the first time since John moved in. When he woke up later that evening, he was met once again with silence. It made him a little uneasy, but he didn’t think anything about it. There were probably just at Elizas, he thought. It wasn’t until the silence had continued for a week that John figured something was wrong.

He was leaving for work, two weeks of silence, when he finally ran into Alexander. He was probably coming home from work, his usually well-kept hair was hanging messily around his face, and his normally nice ironed shirt and pants, were wrinkled and untucked. When Alexander looked up, John noticed the dark bags under his bloodshot eyes. He looked like shit.

“Afternoon Alexander.” John said as they passed each other, but Alexander didn’t respond, just continued on past him, unlocked his apartment, and slipped in without a word. That was weird, and it was all John could think about during his shift, and when he crawled into bed that morning, the silence only made him more uncomfortable. He ended up turning on his Pandora to play softly in the background as he went to sleep.

John figured that Alexander and Eliza must have broken up, because it has been a month of the deafening silence. John had run into Alexander multiple times, but the normally bubbly and loud man, was now just an empty shell. He rarely acknowledged John, and John hadn’t seen him smile once in a month. He wanted to do something, wanted to help Alexander, but how could he do that? They weren’t friends, John was just his neighbor who knew a little too much about his personal life because of thin walls.

On Johns days off, he tries to stick to the same sleep schedule that he follows when he works. That’s why he was awake at 2am, watching Gilmore Girls and eating cold pizza. He was in his kitchen, grabbing a beer out of the fridge when he heard a loud crash and a string of curses coming from Alexanders apartment. He wasn’t going to go over there, and then he heard a thud, and decided to check on him.

He put on his slippers and went next door, and started to knock. He was trying to be quiet, considering it was 2am, but after a few minutes of quiet knocking with no reply, he progressively got louder. Finally, after what seemed like 10 minutes, Alexander swung open the door. His hair was wild, his eyes bloodshot, and he was swaying slightly, and that’s when John smelled the alcohol practically seeping out of every pore on Alexanders body.

“Hey, I heard a crash, are you okay?” John asked as Alexander just stood there, staring at John with glossy eyes.

“Yeah, I just dropped my vodka.” He slurred and stumbled back into his apartment, leaving the door wide open. John debated just going back home and curling up on his couch to watch more TV, but knew that if he didn’t go make sure Alexander didn’t die from alcohol poisoning he wouldn’t be able to go to sleep. He sighed and followed Alexander into his apartment and almost gagged from the smell of what was probably rotting food. Alex was sitting on the floor of his living room, cradling a bottle of wine and staring at a picture of him and Eliza that was sitting on his coffee table. John walked over to him and snatched the bottle out of his hands.

“Hey!” Alex protested as he tried to stand up and take the bottle back, but stumbled and fell back down. John walked over and put the bottle on the kitchen counter, and that’s when he noticed the glass shards all around the floor, and the stench of vodka staining the tiles. John walked back into the living room where Alex was just sitting on the floor.

“Come on, let’s get you to bed.” John said as he bent down and threw one of Alexanders arms over his shoulder, wrapped his own around his waist, and hoisted him up off the floor. He practically dragged the man into his room because he was falling asleep on Johns shoulder. John laid Alexander down on his bed, flipped him on his stomach so he wouldn't choke on his own vomit, and went back into Alexanders kitchen. He found a broom and swept up the remainder of the vodka bottle and threw it away, and proceeded to throw away all the food that had stated to smell. He threw it down the garbage shoot in the hallway, and went back into his apartment to try and mop the vodka stench out of his tiled floor.

Once he had done that, he went around a simply cleaned up his apartment a little. Throwing clothes into a hamper and putting books on the bookshelf. He then filled up a glass of water and found two Advil and put them on Alexanders bedside table for when he woke up the next morning, and a note that said _“Sorry your head hurts, maybe you shouldn’t try and drink yourself to death next time. If you ever want to talk please stop by – John Laurens (Your concerned neighbor)_ ”

He thought he had done all that he could, and decided to go home while Alexander slept it off. He sat back down and watched more Gilmore Girls until he decided to go to bed at about 10am. He had just changed into his pajamas when there was a knock at his front door. He opened it to find Alexander, wearing the same clothes John had put him to bed in.

“Hey John.”

“Hey Alexander.” Alexander rubbed the back of his neck, like he was searching for what to say.

“Um, thanks for last night. I don’t really remember most of it, but I woke up and my apartment was clean and there was a note from you. So thanks.” John just smiled at Alex.

“Don’t worry about it man. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.” Alex looked at him and gave him a sleepy smile.

“I’m not, I haven’t been since Eliza left me, but I’ll manage. I always do.”

“You don’t have to by yourself, I’m here if you need anything.”

“Thanks John.” Alex turned to walk back to his apartment before he stopped and turned back to look at John, “What time do you get off of work?”

“Well, I’m pulling a 12 hour shift, and I’m going in at 8pm tonight, so 8am in the morning.”

“Do you maybe want to go get coffee with me when you get off?” Alex asked, looking uncertain, but John just smiled at him.

“Yeah I’d like that.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please tell me what you think!  
> Look I managed to write something that's not extremely sad


End file.
